LDS in the USA

Mormonism and the Making of American Culture

By Lee Trepanier and Lynita K. Newswander

Publication Year: 2012

From the politics of Glenn Beck to reality television's Big Love and the hit Broadway show The Book of Mormon, Mormons have become a recognizable staple of mainstream popular culture. And while most Americans are well aware of the existence of Mormonism—and some of the often exaggerated myths about Mormonism—the religion's public influence has been sorely understudied.

Lee Trepanier and Lynita K. Newswander move beyond clichéd and stereotypical portrayals of Mormonism to unpack the significant and sometimes surprising roles Mormons have played in the building of modern America. Moving from popular culture to politics to the Mormon influence in social controversies, LDS in the USA reveals Mormonism to be quintessentially American—both firmly rooted in American tradition and free to engage in the public square.

Trepanier and Newswander examine the intersection of the tension between the nation's sometimes bizarre understanding of Mormon belief and the suspicious acceptance of the most well known Mormons into the American public identity. Readers are consistently challenged to abandon popular perceptions in order to embrace more fully the fascinating importance of this American religion.

Cover

Half Title Page, Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

Although our names are listed as the authors, this book is the
culmination of the shared efforts of our families, friends, and
colleagues. To all of these people we certainly want to extend thanks
for their support, patience, and good graces while we worked to
complete this book. ...

Introduction: For Another Thousand Years

The role of Mormonism in America has been simultaneously
both exaggerated and undervalued. On the one hand, Mormons
are seen with suspicion as part of a secret organization that
seeks domination over the United States; on the other hand, they
are marginalized and often excluded from national conversations
about religion, culture, and politics in America. ...

1. Mormons in the American Imagination

The portrayal of Mormons in American mainstream popular
culture has followed two extremes: they are seen either as the
epitome of all-American and wholesome values of family, clean living,
and material success or as secretive, strange, and suspicious,
with sacred temple rites, special garments, and a murky past that
includes polygamy. ...

2. An American Marriage

The portrayals of the Mormon family in popular culture are
schizophrenic: either a prosperous and proud, self-congratulatory
nuclear family (like the Osmonds) or a secretive cult in
which the husbands lead double lives of public monogamy and private
polygamy (as in Big Love).1 ...

3. The Political Kingdom of God

As Mitt Romney ran for the 2008 Republican nomination for
the presidency, Damon Linker of the New Republic and Richard
Lyman Bushman of Columbia University conducted a provocative
exchange about whether the American public has anything to fear
from a Mormon president. ...

4. An American Theology

The contemporary importance of religion is evident in the
abundance of religious organizations active in American politics
and in attempting to define American culture. The political
scientist Eldon J. Eisenach describes two cases where religion plays
a role in both American politics and culture.1 ...

5. Mormonism as the American Narrative

When Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in America in 1831, he
was immediately struck by its intense “religious atmosphere.”1 He had the luck to arrive in New York City at the height
of the religious activity known as the Second Great Awakening,
and he observed the democratic nature of American religion from
one extreme to another as he traveled across the nation: ...

Conclusion: The Most American of Religions

After reviewing the contributions that Mormonism has made to
American civilization in such areas as popular culture, national
politics, and social controversies, one could argue that Mormonism
is the most American of all of the American religions—not only
because it is indigenous to this country and cedes a special place
to America in its theology, ...

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